


Doctor Ob(li)vious

by lantia4ever



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: All the memes, Banter, Butterflies, Fluff, Harley Keener & Peter Parker Friendship, Humor, M/M, Memes, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Not Canon Compliant, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Oblivious Idiots Are Oblivious, Peter Harley and Shuri do some not so subtle matchmaking, Peter and Natasha are bros as the spiders should, Pre-Relationship, basically the fluffy aftermath of Endgame we all deserve and need, because I breathe for all the slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 07:59:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18912808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lantia4ever/pseuds/lantia4ever
Summary: Stephen starts getting some weird looks from the Avengers, spanning across disturbed, confused and even scared all the way to curious. He dismisses it at first until weird turns into knowing.And knowing turns into realizing...even if the scheming teenagers had to all but paint it on the walls for him to do so. Oh wait...IronStrange Week 2019 May ~ Day 2 - Butterflies





	Doctor Ob(li)vious

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [显（视）而易（不）见博士](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19061062) by [bunayou](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunayou/pseuds/bunayou)



> Hi everyone! <3 
> 
> Right in time for Day 2 of the IronStrange week! I'm literally making this day by day because I suck at doing anything ahead of time, so...no promises for day three :D If I get mauled over by writer's block tomorrow, it's game over. Kinda like Game of Thrones :D
> 
> This also continues the trend of the HC where everyone is in absolute denial of Endgame ever happening other than Avengers defeating Thanos and bringing everyone back. Because tHEre iS nO enDGaME aLRIgt?! *nervous laugh*
> 
> Enjoy! <3

One of these days, Stephen will portal the entire Compound to another dimension. With all the Avengers still in said Compound. _Especially_ with all the Avengers still there.

It made sense of course – for the Avengers and Kamar-Taj to become allies after the war with Thanos. Their cooperation was, after all, the only reason they defeated the Mad Titan in the first place. With the Guardians and Captain Danvers part of that deal, they formed quite the power circle when it comes to protecting Earth from all kinds of threats.

The alliance is very convenient – to a point. Of being inconvenient. For Stephen at least.

Since the Avenger’s HQ is in New York Stephen was _naturally_ voted to be the contact link and go-to person between them and Kamar-Taj and unlike the Guardians and Carol – who learnt the hard way to always come up with some likely excuse – he has to attend the weekly meeting at the Compound.

He’s four months in and wondering how he made it this far without opening a rift to the Dark Dimension and bargaining with Dormammu to have the Compound for dinner.

At the end of the day, there is only so much stupid crammed in one room he can deal with.

“Alright, let’s begin,” Fury opens up with his usual script and goes through the notable events of the week. “And speaking of handling those damn mutated rat monkeys - ”

Yes...that was fun. 

“ – Atlanta is very happy with the results and sends their thanks…along with a summary of damages the City Council wants us to pay for.”

“So it’s a thanks…but no thanks?” Wilson breaks through a quiet wave of groans coming from a very particular side of the conference table.

“Well, it’s a thanks for getting rid of the mutant rodents but no thanks for the cars, buildings and entire fucking streets you almost leveled with the ground in the process.”

“I’m sorry, were we supposed to be mindful of property while dealing with jumping bloodthirsty monsters?” Rogers pierces Fury with his per usual dumb glare.

“Duh,” Stephen mumbles only for Rhodes to hear, sitting next to him with a now cracking blank expression.

He does tend to forget Rogers can probably hear rats having a wild rump two stories underground – so the glare immediately flickers to him.

“Some damages are expected but yes, you are supposed to be mindful of property damage and attempt to avoid it when possible,” Fury says as if reciting it from a cue card.

Probably because there is a two-page section about property damages in the Accords that goes exactly like that.

“Are we supposed to protect the cars or the people?” Rogers’s frown intensifies.

“You’re supposed to avoid the damages – _when possible_ ,” Fury repeats patiently and Stephen wonders how many woosah’s the man has to do before and after each meeting.

“Maybe next time there won’t even be a single dent in anything, just dead bodies littering the floor!”

“ _Avoid_ _when po_ …am I not talkin’ loud enough?” Fury takes a deep, calming breath and continues. “You honestly want to tell me you absofuckinglutely _had to_ …smash fifty windshields with your shield?” he quotes from the report.

“Do they not realize how much damage and loss of life there would have been if we _didn’t_ deal with those rats?”

“If you answer one more fucking question with another question, Captain, I’m gon ship you to Atlanta right this fucking second to explain to the Council why the street you and Maximoff _dealt with those rats_ can now be a post-apocalyptic scene for some movie!”

“So it’s just _our_ street,” he cleverly masks the question as a statement, exchanging a doubtful look with Maximoff.

“Well, Romanoff and Barton went through an entire block with only one complaint – an arrow shattered some guy’s window. The guy was so happy to now have an authentic Hawkeye arrow that he’s more than happy to take care of the window and the entire block worth of bullet holes.”

“That’s still - ”

“Spiderman and Falcon left their part of the city looking like Shelob’s nest – yes, Mr. Parker, I do know that really old ass movie with the ring,” he stops the excited teen mid-inhale. “But the webs dissolved two days later and the kids apparently had a blast playing with them until then.”

“I underst - ”

“And Doctor Strange and Warmashine actually _improved_ on the state of their block before leaving, replacing some vulgar graffiti with a meme graffiti and straightening a crooked pedestrian crossing street sign.”

“What meme was it?” Peter bounces in his chair.

“The _Captain America always looks like a bird flew away with his hot dog_ one.”

Only Rhodes can say that with a straight face.

“Naaaw, you should have done the LANGUAGE one!” Peter pouts, completely oblivious to the fiery glare sent in his direction from the other side of the table. 

Fury in turn ignores their little exchange altogether and continues. “Not to mention Doctor Strange volunteered to get rid of all the nasty-ass lookin’ rat corpses while you two were already partying it up in the quinjet. So explain how everyone else can keep the damage to a minimum while you leave a street lookin’ like someone bombarded it for a week?!”

That, Rogers can’t explain, so he wisely stays silent. Hard to explain…when that’s exactly what happened. Maximoff just bombarded the rats from the air – missing half the time anyway – instead of getting close and personal with the critters and maybe using something that’s not an explosive ability. If she has such a thing.

Rogers got _too_ close and personal and instead of kicking or sliding the rats off the cars – they liked the glass for whatever reason – he just straight up smashed them into the windshield.

Did Thanos punch the guy’s brain out of his head or was he always this stupid?

“Now that we got that settled, there’s still the question of who’s gon pay for the repairs,” he asks the room, but really just stares at the suddenly quiet Rogers.

“Too late, already paid for in full, Nicole!” Tony walks into the room with his usual flare and beams at everyone present.

And the meeting suddenly gets million times better.

Stephen isn’t a mathematician nor a theoretical physicist but there is this _strange_ connection between Tony walking into the room and things suddenly getting million times better. He’s not sure what’s behind that but he’ll research it in his free time. For science.

It’s probably got to do with Tony not being part of these meetings by default. He fully embraced his ‘stand-by’ position on the team and only ever gets involved during real emergencies…or when something fun is afoot.

“And what, pray tell, happened with the ‘I ain’t your sugar daddy’ speech?” Fury folds his arms, looking up at the engineer now standing next to him.

“Oh don’t worry, that’s still in effect. But _someone_ tweeted the graffiti meme you guys made to me and I suddenly felt the urge to dedicate that half-destroyed street to the meme gods. So, all is taken care of – just this once,” he adds in Rogers’s direction with a smirk…which doesn’t bode well for the Captain in regards to those memes.

Rogers doesn’t seem to care either way, instead squinting at Stephen with the most suspicious and unsettled expression he’s ever seen on anyone’s face before. So he squints back like the five year-old he is but refrains from sticking out his tongue.

“The LANGUAGE meme?!” Peter comes back to life again.

“Sure thing, kid. AND the double-Spiderman meme.”

“SWEET!”

“All kinds of memes, you guys can contribute if you want, it’s an open project. Not you Clint, you draw like shit.”

“Oh come on!”

“You do draw like shit,” Natasha comments, making the archer pout.

“Actually, let him draw something…it can be a meme on its own,” Rhodes smirks at the spies but instead of getting an arrow to the knee, Clint cheers, happy he gets to participate.

“Fine. Remind me not to piss you off, Platypus. You’re all kinds of savage lately,” Tony tells his best friend with a smile that…makes him feel irrationally jea…that makes him feel. Things. In general, nothing particular. At all.

“Thanks. But the meme was his idea,” Rhodes’s smirk widens as he nods at him.

“Doctor Strange!” Tony exclaims with a faked outraged flare.

“Well, the wall had a giant penis sprayed on it. Anything could improve it at that point,” he shrugs.

Tony nods, pursing his lips and THAT was also making him feel totally not-particular things.

“Are there any Black Widow memes?” Natasha leans in towards Peter.

“I think so…lemme research real quick!” Peter switches to serious business mode and whips out his phone.

“Good. Is your torture session over yet?” Tony turns to Fury. “Doctor Wizardmeme can portal us to Atlanta to help with this new damage control thing,” he wiggles his eyebrows and fancy-flips a graffiti spray can from behind his back.

“Awesome! Let’s go!” Peter decides and Fury knows his answer – whatever it would be – doesn’t matter anymore.

 

 

They pretty much take over that street, working together with the locals to chose and pain the memes at appropriate places – even not so appropriate if requested…which is how some of the memes end up on brand new apartment walls, across three different apartment windows and a Porsche.

Admittedly, all the memes are very good taste so of course the guy would want one on his new sports car.

Rogers and Maximoff begrudgingly joined in too and seem to be enjoying themselves despite the initial pessimism. If nothing else, Rogers can at least draw. As for understanding the meme he’s drawing, that’s another story.

After lunch in the form of the largest pizza delivery Stephen’s ever seen, most of the memes start taking shape and they are joined by Thor and Bruce flying in from New Asgard and after requesting meme research help, he portals Princess Shuri and Harley Keener in to assist Peter, much to Shuri’s excitement and Harley’s…devious satisfaction.

Sure, Stephen wasn’t above spray-painting a Captain America meme on top of a badly drawn, disproportionate penis – because his logic of painting a more socially acceptable and minor-friendly picture of a _dick_ is sound and warranted.

Nobody needs to know he believes he just painted another dick over that dick…Harley Keener on the other hand…he doesn’t exactly know the meaning of subtle.

“I don’t get it,” Rogers comments on Harley’s masterwork – a picture of a thoroughly confused Captain America looking at a sheet music page.

“Ah!” Harley raises a finger at him, nodding and quickly adding a bit of text underneath that says ‘I don’t get it’. “Thanks, forgot about that bit,” he then beams at the man who now looks exactly as confused as on the wall and slowly backs away.

Stephen is not a music expert…but that’s an A-major chord repeating itself on the page. An A chord.

“I digress. You do know subtle,” he gives Harley a ‘not bad’ look which the teen replies to with a smirk.

“That makes one of us.”

“Excuse me?”

“Nothing,” he shrugs, his smile turning into a knowing grin.

He takes a page out of Rogers’s book and backs the hell out of the Keener zone. That kid is not to be messed around with.

Speaking of kids that shouldn’t be messed with, he walks over to check on Peter. The ever-inventive spider teen is taking full advantage of his must-wear Spiderman suit and uses Karen to outline each drawing with webs to reach maximum perfection and basically makes everything a coloring exercise for the neighborhood kids that absolutely love him for it.

Now he’s working on his own little project on the side road and on closer inspection it’s something Stephen recognizes – as well as he should, since it’s _him_.

A damn accurate version of him, Cloak and everything, in the middle of the mirror clone spell with multiple extra hands surrounding his person as well as multiple butterflies circling his head almost like a crown.  

“How is that a meme?” he frowns at it. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s perfect…but where’s the joke?”

Peter freezes as if caught doing something unseemly. “Uhm…it’s not finished yet.”

“O…kay. I’ll go check on the princess.”

“No! I mean…she’s probably not finished either!”

“What are you even talking about, I’m all done here,” Shuri leans in from around the corner.

“See? Show me what you’ve got,” he smiles at her, noting Peter’s multiple _ABORT_ signs out of the corner of his eyes.

Shuri’s meme, spread all across the concrete fence is most definitely ready…and…interesting. It’s a series of the same images of Rogers and Tony and under each in capital letter is written ‘CIVIL WAR’. He’s seen some of those before – mainly because Tony himself has an extensive series of those set as the screensaver for his holoscreen in the lab.

Stephen’s favorite out of those was Tony’s “Pluto is a planet” and Rogers’s “Pluto is a dog” = Civil War. That made him cry genuine tears of laughter and the joke isn’t even that funny…considering that’s something Rogers would totally say and be serious about it.

This one is...Stephen’s not yet sure what to call it. Rogers always has a quote with some doctor in it… _’Doctor Who’, ‘Doctor House’, ‘Doctor Phil’, “Doctor Watson”…_ and Tony’s answer is always the same.

_‘Doctor Strange.’_

Shuri disappears somewhere while he’s processing the elusive meaning of this particular…meme? Is that it? Then why does he feel _attacked_. In the _feels_.

“No! ASDFJGKDJFGDWHAT?!” he hears Peter yell and decides to round the corner again, just in time to see Peter flailing on the ground, sputtering some more incoherent things while trying to scramble towards Shuri, who’s busy writing something at the top of his creation.

He spots him walking back over to them and gives up, collapsing on the pavement next to Stephen’s badass picture.

On the top of which now stands in two elegantly written lines:

_Tony Stark is a handful._

_‘Oh well…’_

He reads it again. And again. Then he looks up at Shuri – a statue of innocence if he’s ever seen one, then at Peter – the heavily breathing yet dead-looking spider on the pavement, and then reads it _again_.

That’s the problem. The more he reads it, the more sense it starts to make. Both their memes. And that tiny knowing smirk on Shuri’s face.

“What’s with the butterflies?” he blurts out, focusing on anything but the meaning behind their collaborative _memes_.

“Seriously?” Peter lifts his head, the suits way too emotive face mask squinting at him.

“I told you,” Shuri sighs.

Peter shakes his head and plops it back down on the concrete with a thud. “Unbelievable.”

“Don’t worry guys,” Harley swoops in out of nowhere. “I’ve got this. Apparently I’m good at subtle so…,” he points at another fence just across the street and nods his head there in a silent prompt for Stephen to go look.

He takes a breath and goes, followed closely by Shuri and Mr. Subtle Keener…leaving Peter flailing again on the ground.

Another well-drawn picture of him, or rather just his face tilted to the side and watching someth…someone like they just invented the air they breathe and again, there are a couple butterflies around his head but who the fuck even cares about the damn butterflies!

His meme-self is staring at _Tony Stark’s_ picture-perfect face drawn just _inches_ away from his own and it’s looking back at him with _the same_ expression that might just be doing a LOT of VERY particular things to him RIGHT. NOW.

The title says: ‘Doctor Oblivious’ and ‘Doctor Obvious’ followed by a scribble of ‘not sure which is which’ and then ‘both…both both’.

“So much for subtle,” Shuri chuckles, high-fiving the blonde teen.

“I don’t get it.”

He fears that’s Rogers ambushing him in the middle of his emotional crisis until he realizes that it was him who said that just now.

After a thorough reboot of his brain – he can’t start turning into Rogers, nope, absolutely not – he once again opts to ignore the obvious and plays it cool, turning to Keener with a blank expression.

“The butterflies. What’s with the butterflies?”

“Dude,” Harley groans and within two seconds he somehow manages to bring up his phone and snap a quick picture of Stephen.

“Don’t call me d - ” he starts, but his brain cuts off at the sight of the photo Harley shows him.

“I can call you _dumb_ if that helps.”

There are butterflies. Flying around his head. Right. The fuck. Now.  

He tries catching a sight a of them, probably looking like an idiot, spinning his head round and round…but he can’t.

“They always fly at an angle, you’ve never noticed them before,” Harley continues his un-subtlery.

“Nev…what do you mean _never_?! How many times did this happen?!”

Harley shrugs, putting his hands in his pockets. “Not sure how many times…but just about everyone is very sure it so far happened _every time_ Tony Stark enters the room, is around or…you know… _exists_.”

“Oh dude!” Peter barges in on him. “That can be the next one! Tony Stark: exists. Doctor Strange: * **butterflies** *!”

“Wh… _what_?!” Stephen does a double-take at the three grinning teens, his brain misfiring.

“Yesss, let’s go paint it over _that_ entire building!” Shuri ignores him, pointing at a forty-story apartment house.

“Cool. Let’s go threaten whoever owns it into agreeing to this bold idea,” Harley nods and leads their teen pack away, leaving Stephen gawking after them.

After multiple reboots, he spots Tony at the other end of the street – thank the Vishanti – and all but flies over there.

“Is that a cat?” Tony is asking just then, squinting hard at something Clint is drawing.

“What?! No!”

“That’s a dragon,” Natasha supplies.

“A _what_ now?!” Tony turns to her, tipping his sunglasses just a tiny bit to look at her from underneath them.

“See?! She can tell!” Clint argues.

“Yeah…you drew a dragon once and I thought it was your three-year old daughter’s doodle, that’s how I can tell.”

“I hate you,” Clint pouts and continues drawing the…cat…dragon…thing.

“Uhhh…just a quick question,” he inserts himself into their little circle.

“Yes. There are butterflies flying around your head,” Natasha answers his unsaid question without even sparing him a look.

“You...you didn’t even look.”

Natasha then pointedly looks at Tony first, nods and then looks at him, slowly opening her mouth to speak as if to give him a chance to stop her fro – oh.

“Point taken,” he hastily adds, making her close her mouth and smirk.

Tony frowns at them. “Are you just now figuring that out?! You’ve had those things there since…since unsnapping!”

“Haven’t you found that weird?!” he returns the frown.

“Well, yeah. At first…I mean, you’re a fancy wizard man that makes his hair flow with magic when the wind isn’t doing its job so…thought these are part of the whole…flare. And to be fair, I’ve never seen you without them around these past few months.”

“Hm. I wonder _why_ that is,” Natasha mumbles, sending Stephen a daring eyebrow.

“They’re cool. Makes you look all…sparkly,” Tony winks at him and sure, Stephen planned to have a heart-attack today, why not.

“Funny how they keep on changing colors. _Wonder why **that** is_,” Natasha’s smirk widens.

“Depends on his current level of smitten of course, I thought we established that months ag-OUCH!” Clint grimaces up at them, rubbing his side where Natasha kicked him.

Tony – _thank the Vishanti_ – just laughs it off…which is where Stephen’s brain finally kicks back into full motion and makes him understand the ‘ _both’_ part of Harley’s meme.

They are both fucking morons.

“Aaaaand the ball dropped,” Natasha rolls her eyes, looking away from him. “Let’s go grab some donuts.”

“But…the dragon! I gotta – hey!” Clint protests as she drags him away.

“Thank God…this Avengers slash Game of Thrones meme is awful.”

“You’d say that…since he made you into the Iron Throne,” Stephen responds without missing a beat…which sends another wave of realization down his way.

“It’s like he _kinda forgot_ I’m a Stark! That’s like a gold mine of all the GOT memes but nope. I’m Iron Throne now,” he scoffs, kicking the part of the picture where the armor is drawn as the throne.

He chuckles at the antics and mentally stops himself from blurting something totally dangerous like… _who’d you like to sit on you?_

“So…what _is_ the deal with the butterflies? Didn’t have those before Titan...”

Yeah, let’s totally not talk about Titan…although it probably has a lot to do with it. “Apparently they appear whenever _you_ appear,” he goes with straightforward because now that he regained full brain function, he’s a man on a mission.

“Hah…yeah, that’s a good one.”

“It’s a useless kind of magic but it can manifest without me knowing based on some emotions. I think.”

Tony’s smile freezes and a tiny frown creases his forehead. “You’re serious,” he states.

“Yep.”

“You mean…”

“How about you go down the street, chat with the kids…see what they’ve been up to in there? And we can get back to what I mean after that…if…well…you’ll see,” he stutters a little, realizing that maybe both…doesn’t necessarily mean _both_ both.

“Uhhh…okay?” Tony blinks at him. “That’s…cryptic and all that, which is what I’m kinda used to already when it comes to you…alright. I’ll bite,” he shrugs and sets off to find the kids. “Oh and by the way? Those things totally turn blue when you’re nervous,” he casually throws over his shoulder with the most gigantic grin ever and continues to walk away.

Stephen stands there for a moment, staring at his retreating form…and maybe he should portal _himself_ into the Dark Dimension.

But he’s not a coward…even though the sheer living and breathing fierceness that is Tony Stark does scare him sometimes.

Not today.

He smirks, adding that line to Clint’s incomplete meme and melts into the crowd for the rest of the day.

 

It’s almost midnight when his phone dings with a new message – it’s a snapshot of Harley’s all too telling meme and a text:

_‘We’re ob(li)vious morons.’_

Quickly followed by a new one:

_‘Brunch?’_

He smiles, typing up a ‘ _I know a place_ ’ and collapsing into the Sanctum’s lobby couch.

Whatever color goes with _happy_ must be going wildly bright up there now.


End file.
